Author: Amy Casey

Book Review: The Sport of Kings by C.E. Morgan

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The Sport of Kings: A NovelThe Sport of Kings: A Novel by C.E. Morgan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Sport of Kings was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2017, and it has a horse on the cover. These two things compelled me to purchase and read it immediately. However, I had no idea what I was in for. This novel is simply torrential. After finishing the last page, I sat there stupefied on my couch and then sobbed for a full twenty minutes. The story is layered with generations of shame, filled with imprisonment both physical and mental, and a study in the exploitation that comes with corrupted understandings of parenthood, race, gender, nature, and self. The story is terrible and gorgeous as a tyrant. I am in absolute awe of C. E. Morgan, even though her indelible writing obliterated my heart.

This review is inadequate, but luckily Jaimy Gordon wrote a far better one for The New York Times for your consideration.

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Book Review: My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult

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My Sister's KeeperMy Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

My Sister’s Keeper is melodrama done well, with a side of interesting ethical quandaries. The premise itself is the book’s biggest strength–should a young woman who was born for the purpose of being a blood and organ donor to her leukemia-stricken sister be allowed medical emancipation from her parents, even if it’s at the cost of her sister’s life? It’s fascinating and emotionally taxing territory to ponder. This is the chess board upon which Jodi Picoult plays her pieces: characters who have exaggerated, caricature-like personalities but also moving, true inner dialogues that almost make up for it. Some of the plot conveniences are certainly too convenient to be believed, but they create a resulting environment of heightened emotion that sets Picoult up to spike her best moments right into reader’s hearts. While elements of the story itself were overwrought, certain truths about parenthood, sisterhood, and human rights get explored along the way, and make this novel worth the quick read.

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Book Review: Radium Girls by Kate Moore

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The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining WomenThe Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Kate Moore’s monumental dedication in researching the lives of the radium dial painters makes this incredible book what it is. She writes their stories with sensitivity and fidelity, imbued always with the deep admiration that compelled her to take on the project of writing Radium Girls. Detailing the obscene negligence of the radium companies of the 1920s and the carnage that followed in its wake, this book is a battle cry from the past that’s long overdue. I was transfixed and educated in the process of reading–Moore leaves no small detail unturned. The dial painting women are resurrected in these pages, and the reader learns about their everyday moments and concerns as much as about the unbelievable physical torments that they underwent. “Lip, dip, paint” becomes a chilling refrain as Moore shines a harsh light on a moment in history that birthed many of the workers’ protections that our country now provides. This is a stunning piece of non-fiction that pays a loving tribute to its subjects, making them completely impossible to forget.

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Book Review: The Encyclopedia of Early Earth by Isabel Greenberg

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The Encyclopedia of Early EarthThe Encyclopedia of Early Earth by Isabel Greenberg
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Do you remember being a kid, somewhere around 10 years old, and just getting lost in your own imagination for hours–inventing islands, monsters, and great journeys? Taking themes from stories or movies and re-casting yourself in the hero’s role? That feeling is exactly what reading this delightful graphic novel feels like. Isabel Greenberg’s The Encyclopedia of Early Earth is filled with the warmest cold weather tales you’ll ever witness. That warmth comes equally from her hilarious subtle humor, illustrations that are somehow gorgeous and adorable at once, and the rich well of myth that she pulls her source material from. This is not a story that makes sense… not really. It’s more about the role of storytelling itself in culture and in our lives. The power to save our lives and make people fall in love lies within Greenberg’s mischievous, ambitious pages. I can’t imagine a more wonderful thing to read.

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Book Review: The Grip of It by Jac Jemc

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The Grip of ItThe Grip of It by Jac Jemc
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jac Jemc’s The Grip of It is where Southern Gothic meets millennial anxiety, and it’s a match made in the depths of hell. Of course, that’s exactly the point of this wholly disturbing psychological thrill ride. Jemc plays so intelligently with the fear that preys on coincidence and misperception–is that stain getting larger? Does anyone else hear that faint humming sound? Was that shadow I saw for a split second actually real, or just my imagination? When we can’t trust our own judgment, our minds can start to unravel, and Jemc builds that sense of disease so slowly that the reader almost doesn’t realize it before it’s too late. One of the delicious torments of this novel is the uncertainty that permeates every moment, which Jemc balances with indelible images of haunting that will make you hug a pillow for dear life as you read. Read it as an allegory of a dishonest marriage or just a good old-fashioned haunted house story. Either way, it’s creepily, deeply enjoyable.

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Book Review: Iron Gold by Pierce Brown

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Iron Gold (Red Rising, #4)Iron Gold by Pierce Brown
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I fell back into the world of the Red Rising saga like an iron rain. As someone who is already firmly ensconced in Brown’s work, I came to this novel ready to love it, and it did not disappoint. All the trademark features of the series are here: counterplots, twists that stop in their tracks and add a backflip on for good measure, and a heaping helping each of pageantry and violence. What’s new here is the added element of over a decade of time, which allows Brown to show Darrow as a man who must now reap the consequences of the social unrest that his war has spurred. The emotional depth of the story offers new and interesting views of beloved characters–children grow up, warlords tire of war, liberated people find themselves in new types of slavery, the downtrodden grow talons, and old feuds get even older. I enjoyed the three perspective technique present in the new trilogy, which helps us consider more sides in the fractured society that Brown presents. Another amazing ride. Pierce Brown’s brain amazes me, and I’m so happy he stays just sane enough to continue to bring his world to the masses. Counting down the days until the next novel comes out! Note: I would not recommend reading this book without first reading the previous three. The family trees and various alliances are maddeningly complicated at this point, but having the previous trilogy as a primer provides an anchor.

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Book Review: Walking Your Octopus by Brian Kesinger

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Walking Your Octopus: A Guidebook to the Domesticated CephalopodWalking Your Octopus: A Guidebook to the Domesticated Cephalopod by Brian Kesinger
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This guidebook is an absolute delight for the eyes and the mind, whether you’re a Victorian about town or a cephalapod waiting for its forever home. The charms of these whimsical illustrations are unlimited, and I can’t wait to get my hands on Kesinger’s subsequent octo-oriented titles! I smiled the whole way through.

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Book Review: Kenobi by John Jackson Miller

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Kenobi (Star Wars)Kenobi by John Jackson Miller
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Kenobi is the first Star Wars installment that I’ve read since the transition to the rebooted Legends canon, and it was a natural choice because (in my opinion), Obi-Wan’s character is the single shining gem to emerge from Episodes I-III. This adventure picks up right at the end of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and presents Ben Kenobi’s transition to Tatooine life in the form of a space western. It’s an engaging adventure story that is absorbing and fun, but ultimately forgettable. I wish there would have been more scenes actually involving Ben, since he’s left as an enigma on the side of what is really a settler’s story. Miller doesn’t let us get close, and I think that’s on purpose. While I understand the move to keep the mystery surrounding his character sacred, I’ll simply counter with this: the book is called Kenobi. I was hoping the novel would take his point of view as its guiding force, but I guess I’ll just have to keep daydreaming about Obi-Wan’s forgotten years in my free time. That being said, enjoyable romp of a book.

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Book Review: The Secret Lives of Color by Kassia St. Clair

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The Secret Lives of ColorThe Secret Lives of Color by Kassia St. Clair
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This enchanting read is one of the most interesting informational books I’ve ever read, and it’s as much a festival for the eyes as it is for the brain. Kassia St. Clair assembles a huge collection of historical vignettes that take us through the unexpected secrets of various colors–some familiar, some quite unusual. The stories dabble in art history, fashion, biology, geology, politics, and culture, all through the lens of the colors that have influenced them since time began. What’s really wonderful is that each shade appears visually along the margins of its own story, so the reader can really soak in each shade. I loved the bite-size length of each individual color’s moment in the text, and the way St. Clair’s tone shifts in a charming way, as capricious as the colors themselves. Whether creepy, comical, pious, or posh, each color has more in its history than most of us dare to imagine. If the visual spectrum has ever interested you, you’ll want to add this title to your reading palette. (P.s. My favorite shades from the book: Baker-Miller Pink, Dragon’s Blood, Ultramarine, Absinthe, and Taupe. )

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Book Review: Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? by Frans de Waal

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Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? by Frans de Waal
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? is not just an absorbing scientific read, but also a manifesto in defense of the study of animal cognition. As one of the most prominent leaders in this field of biology, Frans de Waal gives a passionate and impenetrable body of evidence to support the concept that animals are so much more than mindless stimulus-response machines. De Waal argues that it’s high time for science to accept that human beings are in good company when it comes to thinking skills like planning ahead, creating culture, communicating, and even playing politics. With results from studies on chimpanzees, orangutans, macaques, crows, octopuses, wolves, and many more fauna, this book takes us on a tour through different types of cognition and explores the history behind what we know about animals’ amazing thinking abilities. As far as readability, the prose is a bit dry and tough to stick with for readers who don’t normally read in this genre–it is very heavy on scientific terminology, so approach it as such. One can’t help but respect de Waal’s copiously researched and referenced work in this volume: it speaks to how seriously he takes his discipline, and how seriously we should consider the minds of our crawling, flying, and swimming neighbors.

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